by Mark Hodder
He crawled to one of the other openings and stepped through into the narrow tunnel beyond. I followed him up its steep incline, heading toward the heart of the mountain.
“A question, Mr. Fleischer,” he said, after a few moments had passed.
“Yes?”
“That word I used. What in the name of the Saviour is cricket?”
We climbed for what felt like hours. The tunnel twisted and turned, sometimes angling upward so sharply that it was almost vertical. Occasionally, other passageways branched away from it, and, eventually, we entered one of these and continued on. Being too narrow for regular use, these channels through the rock and crystal were uninhabited and we encountered no other Mi’aata, though on a number of occasions we caught glimpses, through crevices, of populated corridors.
Undetected, we pushed on, drawing upon reservoirs of strength we hadn’t even suspected in ourselves, through gleaming gem-encrusted burrows and along lengthy passages of bare rock, completely unlit, groping our way forward until something twinkled in the darkness ahead and we emerged into another stretch of glowing crystals.
Despite being dressed only in the ragged remnants of my trousers, now little more than a loincloth, I perspired freely—and bled, too, for sharp edges sliced at my skin and I suffered many knocks and scrapes. Most of all, I was afflicted with thirst, and by the time Spearjab announced, “What! What! We are close, old chap! Very close! We’ve just passed into Zone Four. Humph!” I felt I might lose my mind if I didn’t find water soon.
We came to a narrow opening on our left and my companion directed me to look through it. I did so, and the sight that met my eyes was overwhelming. The cleft overlooked a vast illuminated cavern, so large that the far distance was somewhat obscured by the intervening atmosphere. Hundreds of buildings, tall and pointed, rose into the air, many storeys high but still not so tall as to come near the roof that arched overhead. Ramps spanned the distances between the structures, and wheeled vehicles—they were too far away for me to make out their design—traversed them. Other vessels flew between and around these elevated thoroughfares, making the whole settlement a hive of activity as thousands upon thousands of Mi’aata went about their business, whatever that might be.
“The Quintessence told me Clarissa was on this level,” I muttered. “I suppose she’s in one of those buildings.”
“I should say so,” Colonel Spearjab replied.
“Damnation!” I cursed, realising that I would never find her unassisted. I had no choice but to complete my mission and report back to the trinity. “Let’s move on, Colonel.”
The tunnel was horizontal now, running around the edge of Zone Four. We progressed through it until we came to a fairly large empty and dimly lit cavern, which, to my sheer delight, had a clear stream bubbling out of its floor, forming a deep pool to one side. Without hesitation, I threw myself down and gulped at the cold, revitalising water. Then, after my companion had also drunk his fill, I immersed myself fully and rubbed the sweat, dirt, and blood from my skin. Spearjab slid in after me and we faced each other, relishing the soothing chill.
“Oh dear! They have discovered our absence, Mr. Fleischer. I can feel it. Humph! Your mind is impervious to them—they’ll not detect you unless you are seen—but Mi’aata minds are all connected. What! What! Eventually they’ll trace my whereabouts.”
“How soon?”
“I think we’ll be safe for a little while longer, and we’re very close to our quarry now. Ha! It is a strong, extremely well-shielded mind. Yes, indeed! Extremely well shielded, I say!”
“But you can detect it?”
“Quite so! Quite so! Because I’m Divergent, you see, and it’s extended its influence over all of my kind. Harrumph! The confounded brute is keeping us befuddled and half-bonkers until it needs us. But—ha ha!—I can trace the influence back to its source, what!”
“You’re remarkably coherent, under the circumstances.”
“I have you to thank for that, old thing. You’ve jogged me out of my bewilderment, so to speak—kicked life into the slumbering Yatsill in me! Incidentally, whoever our mysterious plotter is, I feel that I am acquainted with them.”
“From where?”
“I haven’t the foggiest. Not the foggiest, I say! Harrumph! Harrumph! Shall we push on?”
I nodded, and in short order we were once again squeezing ourselves through a narrow passageway.
The tunnel eventually split into two. Spearjab led me into the left-hand branch, which began to slope downward. Not long after we’d entered it, I became aware that voices were echoing faintly from somewhere ahead.
“We’re there! Don’t make a sound! Lips sealed, what!” the colonel warned.
Inch by inch, we crept forward.
There were two voices. As we approached them, their conversation became more distinct, and both participants sounded familiar to me.
“—are far more advanced than the Koluwaians I have sent to you and outnumber your kind by thousands to one.”
“Do not concern yourself. The manufacturing plants are working at full capacity. It was fortunate that my attempt to kill the woman failed, for what I subsequently found in her mind has proven most useful. Her machines are almost finished, and the moment I demonstrate them, your world will buckle, of that you can be sure.”
“The Quintessence has not detected this activity?”
“The trinity knows the plants have been commandeered, of course, but what little access I allowed the Quintessence to the woman kept it so distracted that it has no conception of how far our plans have advanced.”
Colonel Spearjab flattened himself against one side of the tunnel and indicated that I should pass him. I pulled myself forward.
“What of my return to Koluwai?” the second voice asked. “It will be the last, yes? I have been through the rupture too many times already. I’m being disfigured by the scar tissue.”
“Your frequent crossings have caused your body to permanently resonate with the path—that is why you can now traverse it even when it is quiescent—but what healed you before is now damaging you. Do not be anxious. Do exactly as you are instructed and it will, indeed, be your final crossing. The detrimental effects won’t kill you.”
“Very well. I shall endure it one more time.”
“Underconveyance Ninety-eight will be departing very soon with the first group of Discontinued. The crew has been coerced. They will take you as close to the shore as you need. You understand how the crystal functions?”
“Yes. It is attuned to the far end of the rupture.”
“That is correct. Be careful with it, for I have found no other like it. How confident are you in travelling to the destination we’ve selected as our first target?”
“I can do it, though it will cost me much.”
“You will have riches beyond imagining—and power, too—if you succeed.”
I came to a letterbox-sized chink in the rock and peered through into a bright crystalline room. There were two individuals in it. One was a Yatsill, the other a robe-wrapped and masked human. I recognised them immediately and quietly hissed, “Yissil Froon and Sepik! How in blazes did they get here?”
“By the time you have relocated the other end of the path,” Yissil Froon said, “I will have no further need for Phenadoor’s resources and will use the machines to transport the Divergent to the Forest of Indistinct Murmurings. My army will be there by the time the Heart of Blood fully sets—arriving as the rupture properly opens. You must travel back through it immediately. I will detect your arrival and direct the Divergent to your position. The rupture will take them.”
“I shall depart at once.”
“No. First the woman must be dealt with. She has served her purpose. I have learned all I need from her. The obstacles I placed in her mind will not confound the Quintessence for much longer. If he learns the truth of Mi’aata origins, he will seek to restore the balance and there will be no further generations of Divergent. Unacceptable! My
army must continue to grow.”
“Shall I bring her to you?”
“There is no need. I have much to do and many to influence. I must immediately enter into a deep meditation in order to maintain my grip. I trust you to act independently until I can contact you again. Go to the girl at once and eliminate her. I shall divert her guards. Then make your way to Underconveyance Ninety-eight and play your part as arranged. Soon, Mr. Sepik—soon we shall gain the resources of an advanced world and use them to return and conquer this one. An entire world each, my friend! An entire world each!”
Sepik bowed, crossed the chamber, and disappeared through a narrow doorway.
I turned to Colonel Spearjab, leaned close, and whispered urgently, “Can you locate Sepik’s mind and follow him?”
“Yes. He is very distinct, what!”
“Then lead on, as fast as you can!”
Heaving himself past me, Spearjab moved through the twisting tunnel. I followed, my heart hammering, my mind repeating over and over those dreadful words: Eliminate her.
To my great relief, we’d gone only a short distance when the crawl space suddenly expanded, giving us room to stand. The colonel shot forward around a bend, then raced along a straight, gloomy passage. I ran behind, disregarding my battered body’s complaints, forcing it by sheer willpower to overcome its extreme fatigue. When had I last eaten? How long since I’d enjoyed a full night’s sleep? I didn’t know and it didn’t matter. Sepik was on his way to murder Clarissa Stark. I had to stop him.
We clambered through an irregularly shaped hole into a bright corridor, turned left, and came to a pearl-panelled door.
“The beastly thing is behind this,” Spearjab whispered.
“Open it.”
The Mi’aata made a gesture and the panel silently dissolved, revealing a three-walled room with an oddly formed vehicle standing in its centre. The contraption faced the open side of the chamber, through which the towers of Zone Four were visible. Sepik was standing with his back to us, bending over the rearmost part of the machine and making adjustments to a number of crystalline controls.
I leaped forward, grabbed the Koluwaian around the waist, lifted him high, and slammed him onto the floor. His cry of alarm was cut off as I kicked him onto his back, fell knees-first onto his stomach, and ground my forearm into his throat. I used my free hand to rip the mask from his face, flinging it aside.
The witch doctor Iriputiz looked up at me.
“By God!” I cried, rearing backward. “You!”
The man’s mouth worked but only a faint croak emerged.
Bunching my fingers in his robes, I hauled him to his feet and, unable to stop myself, sent my fist smashing into his mouth, once, twice, a third time. He sagged and would have fallen but I held him upright and shook him until his head snapped back and forth and his broken teeth rattled. Blood dribbled from his split lips.
“I’ll kill you!” I screamed. “I’ll bloody kill you!”
I drew back my arm to strike him again but a tentacle wrapped around it and Colonel Spearjab’s voice penetrated the red fog of hatred and vengeance that had enveloped me.
“Mr. Fleischer! You need him alive!”
I hesitated. My wits swam back into focus. I took deep breaths. Spearjab released my arm and I let it fall, but maintained my grip on the islander and glared into his eyes.
“If you want to live, Iriputiz, you’d better damned well talk. Where is Clarissa Stark?”
“She—she is being held in—in Tower Forty-six” he stammered, pointing weakly toward Zone Four. “I was—I was just going there.”
“Yes, and I know why, you murdering hound!” I shook him again and slapped his face. “Take me to her or, I swear, you’ll die so slowly that the torture you put me through on Koluwai will seem nothing but child’s play!”
I spun him around and twisted his arm up behind his back until he shrieked, then pushed him against the vehicle. After quickly examining the machine, I muttered an imprecation and turned to Spearjab. “There’s not room for all of us, Colonel.”
“Oh well, not to worry, hey!” he said. “It isn’t a good means of escape, anyway—the fliers operate well inside Phenadoor but outside they can’t stray far from the jolly old mountain. Their frequencies are highly localised. What! What!”
I thought for a moment, then levered the witch doctor’s arm again until he moaned with pain. “Where is Underconveyance Ninety-eight?”
“Dock Twelve!”
“Can you find it, Colonel?”
Spearjab waggled a limb. “If they don’t capture me first, old chap. Ha ha! What! Harrumph!”
“Then go. When you get there, remain concealed and watch out for me. I’ll join you as soon as I can. If I reach it before you, I’ll wait for as long as possible.”
The Mi’aata gave a tentacular salute and withdrew, heading back the way we’d come. I didn’t envy him the tunnels.
I returned my attention to Iriputiz. “Your choice is simple; cooperate or die.”
“I want to live.”
“Get into the machine.”
The vehicle was gondola-shaped with two large outcroppings of blue crystal at the front and two at the back. I could see neither an engine nor any means of locomotion.
I climbed in, sat behind my prisoner, and gripped him by the neck. “Any trickery and I’ll snap your spine.”
He mumbled his understanding and began to manipulate controls on a panel in front of him. The vehicle hummed and waves of light rippled down the crystals. It rose smoothly from the floor, eased forward, then flew from the room and sped out into the immense cavern.
We only travelled a short distance—our destination was on the near side of Zone Four—but the flight was long enough that I was able, by careful observation, to understand the machine’s surprisingly simple controls. By the time we spiralled down onto a platform that projected from one of the upper storeys of a tower, I was confident that I’d be able to fly it myself.
I looked around. We were at a dizzying height and most of the busy traffic was below us. The platform was not easily visible from the neighbouring buildings. I was already aware that Yissil Froon was employing his mental powers to keep the guards distracted, so had little fear of discovery. I was more concerned that Iriputiz would attempt to betray me, so after we landed I kept a tight hold of him as I clambered out of the flier. Hauling him after me, I dragged him over to the building’s wall and rammed him into it, slapping his face again and feeling a satisfying sting in my palm. He was an old man and I was acting like a vicious thug but didn’t care. There was nothing I could do to him that would match the agony he’d inflicted upon me, no amount of pain I could subject him to that he didn’t deserve.
“Lead me to her.”
He indicated a door. I pushed him over to it, he made a gesture, the panel faded, and we passed through onto a ramp that angled upward to our left and downward to our right. We followed it down.
“Reverend Fleischer, I can—”
“Don’t call me that!” I snapped.
“I’m sorry. Please listen. I can give you power—”
“I don’t need it.”
“Not here! Not on Ptallaya! On Earth! I’m to travel back to Koluwai, and from there to your country—to London. The crystal will cause the far end of the path to follow me.”
I pushed him on down the walkway. “Path?”
“The rupture. The thing that spans our world and this.”
“Why move it over London?”
“Yissil Froon intends to send his Divergent Mi’aata through. That’s why he’s been breeding the creatures. When they emerge from the Yatsill and consume human blood, it poisons them, affects their brains, makes them susceptible to his influence. They are to be an army of conquest, using war machines designed by Clarissa Stark. Your country, as the most powerful nation, will be the first to be invaded. Once it’s brought to its knees and its resources are seized, the rest of our world will buckle. Work with us, Rev—Mr. Fle
ischer. I am to become Yissil Froon’s representative on Earth. I will make you my general. You can have your choice of riches!”
I was so astounded by his audacity that I almost stumbled.
Digging my fingers into him, I gave the witch doctor a shake and hissed, “Why, Iriputiz? Why did you send me to Ptallaya?”
“Because my wife was preventing the Yatsill from developing into Mi’aata. I couldn’t locate and stop her. So, instead, I infected you with the kichyomachyoma disease, which my own people cannot carry, and sent you here to spread it among the creatures. It weakened their ability to receive her help, made them more liable to transform.”
Wife?
A veil of secrecy and deceit lifted.
“Yaku! You are Yaku!”
Suddenly, I understood almost everything.
“Move faster!” I commanded.
I forced the witch doctor ahead until, having descended three levels without encountering a single Mi’aata, we came to a door that was guarded by two. Neither responded to our approach, and when we reached them, I saw that their eyes were glazed over. Yissil Froon held them in his thrall.
I reached out, took hold of one of their pikestaffs, and plucked it from a loose grip.
“She’s in here,” Iriputiz said. He made a gesture and the door faded. We stepped through.
The room was square, unadorned, and unfurnished but for a long table at its centre. Clarissa Stark was stretched out on it, held down by straps around her wrists and ankles. She turned her head as we entered, her yellow eyes met mine, and she croaked, “Aiden!”
Then she saw Iriputiz and uttered a cry of amazement.
I pushed the man forward. “Untie her!”
Iriputiz obeyed.
“They’ve been battling inside my mind,” Clarissa said, her voice hoarse with emotion. “The Quintessence and Yissil Froon. Froon has examined everything I know about Earth. He filled me with mathematical formulae to keep the Quintessence occupied.”
“Clarissa, I’m going to get you off this island,” I responded.
I pushed Iriputiz aside and helped my friend to sit up. I nodded toward the islander. “As you can see, Iriputiz is no stranger to Ptallaya. He comes and goes as he pleases. He is Yaku, Pretty Wahine’s husband, and also Mr. Sepik of New Yatsillat.”